Men's Football Blog | December 2012

Fans will be able to watch the induction of the 2012 College Football Hall of Fame Class including BYU's Ty Detmer and the announcement of the 23rd winner of the William V. Campbell Trophy.

NEW YORK, Dec. 3 2012 - The National Football Foundation (NFF) announced today that ESPN3 will carry live the two main events associated with the 55th NFF Annual Awards Dinner, which will take place December 4 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

Viewers will be able to watch the morning press conference, starting at 9:00 a.m. ET, and then at 8:00 p.m. ET, fans can view the entire ceremony, which includes the induction of the College Football Hall of Fame Class; the awarding of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented by Fidelity Investments; the announcement of the winner of the 23rd William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth; and the bestowing of the NFF Major Awards. See below for a detailed timeline of events and the honorees.

ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of global sports events annually, and it is accessible online via WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app, and through ESPN on Xbox LIVE to Gold members. It is currently available to 79 million households at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers connected to on-campus educational networks and on-base military networks. A list of participating providers for ESPN3 can be found HERE. For questions, contact ESPN Customer Care at 1-888-549-3776 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. ET daily.

Additionally, the events can be found live on the Official NFF mobile and tablet applications. The apps can be downloaded by searching "National Football Foundation" in the iTunes App Store or Android Market.

If you have already had the chance to pick up this week's Sports Illustrated you know that BYU senior defensive end Ezekiel Ansah is featured in a four-page article in the issue currently on newsstands. If you haven't had the chance, pick it up. Ansah is also mentioned on the cover, which features the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback Andrew Luck.

A brief preview of the Sports Illustrated article entitled "The Next Zig Thing" is included below.

He grew up playing soccer in his home country of Ghana and successfully walked on to the BYU track team, but Ezekiel (Ziggy) Ansah’s future in professional sports could lie in being a first-round pick in the next NFL draft. He was recruited to BYU by a sophomore serving his Mormon mission in Ghana in 2007, who played pickup basketball with Ansah and thought the Ghanaian’s 6' 6" 250-pound frame would lend itself to football. Ansah walked on to the Cougars’ team in 2010, and over the final nine games of the 2012 season, was third on his team in tackles (48), second in sacks (4.5) and first in tackles for loss (13).

While he’s not a star in the sport he grew up dreaming about – basketball – Ansah is drawing serious interests from NFL scouts, who are flocking to BYU to check him out. Says one scout: “The combination of his height, weight and speed is probably unmatched. Plus, he’s so strong. He’s got that Jason Pierre-Paul type of physical upside.”

Ansah and the author of the article, Jeff Benedict, also spoke with Doug Tribou on NPR's "Only a Game" as the national radio program originating from Boston's 90.9 WBUR featured Ansah this weekend.

“I think he has become the kind of football player that NFL teams long to find,” said Jeff Benedict, who wrote profiled Ansah for Sports Illustrated. “He’s got this very unique combination of speed, size and strength. It’s very rare that you find a guy who’s that tall and that big and can run as fast as he does, especially laterally.”

Select the following link to read more about and listen to the NPR interview: NPR's Only a Game.